World of witches
by islalovesgiraffes
Summary: Eloise Thompson is a muggle-born girl new to the world of magic. She suddenly finds out she is a witch in 1991 and can go to Hogwarts, the school for witches and wizards. With her new friends Anna Lawson and Lydia Williams, she must try to survive Hogwarts while dealing with the hardships of being a muggle-born and the dark possibility of you know who.
1. Chapter 1

The morning was cold. When Eloise was woken up she felt shivers down her back and, along her arms goosebumps had begun to form. Eloise frowned at her mother Nancy , who had entered her room as she begun to open the curtains. "Eloise you have to wake up now or you'll be late" Nancy said in a gentle but firm tone. "Please mum just 5 more minutes" Eloise had managed to groan out. " I gave you '5 minutes' half an hour ago! Now get up already" Nancy pulled off the quilt on Eloise's bed and then promptly left the room.  
Eloise slowly got out of bed and changed out of her pajamas. Today she was meant to go shopping with her uncle for school supplies, of course these weren't the usual pens and pencils, instead she was buying wands, robes and magic books. Eloise couldn't help but let of a small laugh, she found it ridiculous. She still found it hard to believe that such a thing as magic existed. Eloise then brushed back her wavy black hair and tied it into 2 plaits. When her letter first arrived she thought it was an elaborate joke that her parents had pulled on her but apparently she was a witch(which she hoped didn't mean that she would become evil and start turning people into frogs). Her parents were just as surprised as her at the beginning but an apparent professor from Hogwarts, the school for witches and wizards, had come and told her parents all about the wizarding world. For her new school year she would have to go to special shops but luckily her uncle, Mark, was also a wizard. It was hard to take in that her own uncle had magical abilities. After this revelation it was revealed that her Auntie and cousin, Eliza were also witches. Although this explained why her cousin's 6th birthday party ended in flames.  
Mark had suggested that he would take her shopping for her new school. She sighed, if a professor from Hogwarts came and her family was convinced that she was a witch, it had to be real or at least she hoped.

30 minutes later and Eloise was ready to leave. Mark was already in the living room waiting for her. He was a short man in his mid 30's and his long, unkempt brown hair was beginning to grey. Eloise had known him since she was a baby yet now he seemed like a different person. He held a long dark brown stick which had carvings along the bottom of it. ' _Don't tell me_ _**that's**_ _supposed to be a wand'._ Eloise had always thought that wands were meant to be short with a bright, yellow star at the broke her from her thoughts when he stood up to greet her. "Eloise! I haven't seen you in so long!" He enthusiastically told her while squeezing his arms around her into a suffocating but friendly hug. "Aren't you excited to go to Hogwarts? I remember when I first got my letter..." Eloise cut him off before he got the chance to tell his story. "Yes I'm really excited Mark, are we going to go shopping now?" She said in a rude tone. "Of course! You're going to be so surprised when we get there, I can't wait"

As they left the house Mark's smile never left his face. While they were walking Mark decided to continue his rambling from before but kept his voice low and quiet. "You know I never knew about magic until I was your age too. When my letter came a professor came to my house and explained everything to me about magic and Hogwarts and even all the deadly creatures that could kill you" Eloise decided to ignore the last part of that sentence. "So what exactly is Hogwarts?" She asked him. "Well it's a huge school, well more like a castle really, where you will learn all about spells, magical creatures and all kinds of other things" Mark replied.  
"So what classes are there to take?". "Well there's so many it could take me the whole day to list them all! My favourites were always transfiguration's and charms but you look like you'd be good at anything!" Eloise frowned as she heard more words she didn't understand, she thought magic would be more simple than this. In the books she read magic was simply magicians casting elemental or healing spells, she didn't realize there were so many different types of magic.

Eloise was silent for a while thinking of the grand castle her uncle had described. She imagined the towering walls and the grand towers. She created the great hall in her mind and all the different corriders and rooms filled with all kinds of magical objects.  
Once again Mark had to bring Eloise out of her daze. "Eloise you should really pay attention to where you're walking". Mark had stopped her before she was about to cross a busy road. "Sorry I'll pay more attention next time" Eloise said timidly. While she tended to be more confident around people she knew well, Eloise was still very shy, especially when she had done something wrong.

Once the cars had left the road the two of them crossed to the other side. While they were walking Eloise had seen a sign that read 'Charing Cross'. Eloise found it weird, she had been here hundreds of times so how could this be where she gets these "magic" school supplies from? Eloise left her thoughts unspoken, as she was busy looking for things that seemed out of the ordinary around the busy street. Mark had begun walking towards an old pub. The creaky sign outside the building read 'The Leaky Cauldron'. Eloise noticed that she had passed by this building many times but never properly looked at it. The building itself looked to be hundreds of years old but nobody had ever mentioned this place to her before. The pub looked out of place yet Eloise felt that it almost belonged there.

Following Mark she went through the pub's door, Eloise could only think why on Earth they were going into a pub? At first she questioned if this pub was secretly a witches shop but then decided that her uncle probably just wanted a drink. The atmosphere inside was warm and cosy. The room was scarcely decorated and the only notable things were the worn out bar and the old, scratched tables that had been huddled in a corner together. There were a few people siting at the tables, quite busy for a pub at midday. Mark strolled over to an older bald man behind the bar, they both smiled as if they were old friends and exchanged joyful greetings. Eloise stood quietly behind Mark and hoped there would be no introductions. Alas her wish was not granted. "Tom this is Eloise, my niece and Eloise, this is Tom the landlord of this place".  
"Ah you must be here for your school things then" Tom replied. As he stuck his hand out, Eloise awkwardly stared at it for a few seconds too long before limply completing the handshake.  
Mark then sat down at one of the dusty tables and beckoned Eloise to follow. He ordered tea for them both. "So this is a wizard pub then?" Eloise asked, Mark nodded his head while sipping on his tea. "Seems a little too...normal. I was expecting something more..."  
"Magical?" Mark replied.  
"Yes that".  
"Well not all places are going to be as cool as a magic castle, but I promise the place we're going will not disappoint" Mark said with a grin on his face. As much as Eloise was confused and scared of what was happening to her, part of her was glad that it made Mark so happy to explain things to her and show her this new world. Eloise thought he looked like a kid in a sweet shop.

"So where _are_ we going then?" She questioned.

"A place called Diagon alley"


	2. Chapter 2

It was around 1 o' clock when Eloise and Mark left the Leaky Cauldron. Eloise had expected them to go back out to Charing cross but instead she was now facing a large brick wall.  
"This will be your first experience of magic, are you ready?" Mark asked her. Eloise took in a deep breath and nodded, 'Time to see what the big deal is about'.  
"Oh! Before we go, do you still have the list that came with your letter?"  
Eloise fumbled in her pockets until she pulled out the said list. It contained a list of everything she needed for her new school. She was confused when she first read it as many of the items had confusing names. Glancing at the sheet she saw a rather large list of books, presumably one for every subject, she also saw robes and a wand on the list. It was easy to guess which one she was most excited for.  
'Wait I get a wand!?' Eloise screamed inside her head. She knew her uncle had a wand as he had showed her earlier but the thought that she was going to get her own wand excited her more than she expected.  
Mark took the list out of her hands and quickly read it over nodding after every line he read.  
He then walked over to a bin that was against the wall and started counting something, lightly tapping on a couple of the old bricks on the wall. Mark scratched his head and sighed "Dammit, I can never remember is it's three or four across"  
Eloise wondered what he was talking about and looked at him strangely as he continued to tap on the bricks. Eloise thought to herself that if this was magic it was not living up to her expectations.  
"Is going to this alley supposed to be so complicated?" Eloise asked, getting concerned that her uncle was mentally insane.  
"No! Well its not supposed to be...see your meant to tap on one of these bricks and then you can walk right through into the street" Now Eloise was sure her uncle was insane, she knew magic existed so anything could be possible but this was too farfetched.  
"Oh! I remember now, I wrote it on a bit of paper" During his speech, Mark pulled out of his top left jacket pocket. Although Eloise caught a glimpse of the paper she could not read what it said as Mark's handwriting was impossible to decipher. Mark then snapped his fingers and went back to the wall, counting the bricks again, he seemed to have found the one he wanted as he chuckled and had a big grin on his face.  
"Ok now we can go to Diagon Alley!"  
"Finally"

Mark tapped on seemingly the right bricks and the wall in front of them started to disappear, the bricks retreating into the wall. Eloise couldn't believe her eyes, at first she was surprised at the wall moving but then became enchanted when it revealed a bustling street full of shops.  
"Isn't it cool?!" Mark said slowly pushing Eloise forward towards the street.  
When Eloise looked at the street again she took note of the different shops there, the first one that she seen was a robes shop. She guessed that wizards really liked bathrobes for some reason, however the first shop that excited her was a shop with a sign that read "Flourish and Blotts" and appeared to be a book shop. While Eloise was enamored by the magic surrounding the alley, she couldn't shake her love for reading, especially considering this new world must have some interesting books. She only then noticed the massive crowd of people in the street going in and out of the shops. Eloise hoped Hogwarts wouldn't be as crowded as this as she was never good with people and often got scared of large groups of them.  
Mark remembered her fear and grabbed her hand holding it protectively. "So you don't get lost" Mark replied to her unvoiced question.  
"Anyways while I know you must be amazed right now, we need to move quickly, there will be even more people here soon" he explained.  
"The first stop will be the most important one, can you guess what it is?"  
"Books?" Eloise guessed  
"No. A wand!" Mark attempted to make Eloise excited but it was clear from the expression on her face what she wanted to do.  
"Well we'll get the books right after, I promise" He added quickly after.  
"Ok then" Eloise said with a small smile.

Mark led her to a small shop that looked unsurprisingly old. It must be a theme in the wizarding world to have old buildings.  
In the display there was a purple cushion with a wooden stick on it, or rather Eloise thought, a _wand_. Mark held open the door for her as they entered and coughed slightly at the amount of dust there seemed to be. All Eloise could see was boxes save for the man sorting through them. Once he noticed the pair he stopped and went over to his counter. Eloise hid behind her uncle, looking at many boxes and wands.  
"Looking for a new wand sir?" He chimed.  
"No I'm fine, it's my niece who needs a wand, her first in fact" Mark gestured to Eloise who had not yet stopped looking around.  
"Of course, well to start off any preferred wood or core?"  
"No it's more fun for the wand to find you isn't it?" Mark answered.  
"Yes, it always is" the man replied before going back to the boxes and looking around. The man - Eloise decided she should learn his name and leaned over to whisper to Mark.  
"Who is he?"  
"That's Garrick Ollivander the best wandmaker of our time, in my opinion. Don't worry you're in good hands" Mark decided not to whisper this to the embarrassment of Eloise, however if Ollivander heard it he made no reaction to it.

Shortly after Ollivander returned with a wand and handed it to Eloise. She took it nervously in her right hand.  
"This one is beech wood and unicorn hair core" he stated but Eloise could only wonder what that meant.  
"Is that a good thing?" She stumbled out  
"It depends really"  
As soon as Eloise gripped the wand a light beam fired from it and knocked over several boxes beside them. Ollivander quickly took the wand from her hand and put it back in the box.  
"Maybe not this one..."  
"...Sorry!" Eloise's voice was quiet as she muttered out a quick apology. Mark laughed in the background  
"It's ok Eloise, that's normal" he reassured her.  
Eloise was shocked that she had made such a big beam when she had only just started. Although she had witnessed magic several times by now, the concept that she could make magic was mind blowing.

After that she tried holly, pine and Alder but they either produced too much or too little. Eventually Ollivander gave her a warm brown wand which was slightly crooked at the top. Once Eloise held it she felt right, unlike the other ones this wand felt comfortable in her hand.  
"I like this one!" She excitably told Ollivander, who smiled that he had finally found the young witch a wand.  
"That's excellent, the wand you've got there is yew wood and a phoenix feather core, exactly 9 3/4 inches long" Ollivander paused and realized Eloise wouldn't know what that meant. "The core is what powers the magic in the wand, there are three types of cores unicorn hair, dragon string and phoenix feather"  
Eloise nodded and tried to understand. While she was getting her wand she had learned many more things about the world, so this was beginning to make sense. Ollivander turned to Mark "That'll be seven galleons please". Eloise assumed this was the magic currency although she didn't understand why they didn't just use normal money.  
Mark quickly handed him the coins and took the box from him and turned to leave.  
"Thank you Mr Ollivander" Eloise mumbled with a small smile before leaving.

When they were outside Mark put the box into his jacket pocket and explained to Eloise that she wasn't allowed to use magic outside of school but she wasn't surprised.  
"Considering I don't know how to use or control magic, that's understandable" Eloise said. "So are we getting books now?...please?".  
Mark laughed at her desperation for them.  
"Well I don't think I have enough money on me to buy everything so we're going to need to go Gringotts...that's a bank by the way, and exchange your money" Mark pointed over a tall white building that towered over the rest of the shops and looked quite out of place. Eloise just hoped the bank would be more normal than the rest of the alley.


	3. Chapter 3

As Mark led her down the odd street towards the bank, he explained to Eloise that humans weren't the only creatures that lived in this world.  
"The place we're going doesn't have humans in it, instead there is a different species that run it" Mark said. Eloise thought of all the possible creatures it could be, at first she thought of elves but decided that unicorns would be the most interesting. She wondered how they would use their hooves.  
"Are they unicorns!?" Eloise asked innocently, her uncle laughed in response.  
"No! But that would be interesting! Unicorns are actually very rare, the people working there are actually goblins!" Mark spoke enthusiastically.  
"Like in the Lord of The Rings?" Eloise wondered. Mark laughed at her words again causing Eloise to look away with embarrassment.  
"No not like that. They're much shorter than us and tend to have pointy noses" Mark explained. " Well it doesn't matter too much just be respectful to them and they won't bother you too much" .

After the brief conversation they had reached their destination at the end of the street. The building was much taller than it had seemed and the fancy white walls gave it an image of elegance. Mark opened the doors and stepped through which Eloise then followed. The interior of the bank did not disappoint Eloise as it was as fancy as the outside. She thought it was strange however, how similar and normal everything here seemed to be.  
"Eloise I'm going to exchange the money now, do you have any money of your own that you want changed?" He asked. Eloise handed him a small amount of notes, she had saved up from her pocket money.  
Her uncle walked up to the large counter and began talking to the creature behind it. It was small and had long pointy fingers, Eloise thought that it lived up to its name of goblin quite well. She must have stared for too long as the goblin suddenly made eye contact with her and Eloise looked away in discomfort.

The transaction of money was over fairly quickly and Eloise hurriedly followed Mark out of the bank.  
While they were walking Mark turned his head and smiled at Eloise.  
"You should be excited at where we're going next" he said. Eloise's face brightened up at this sentence.  
"You mean we can finally look at the book shop?!" She asked excitedly.  
Mark nodded and led her to the book shop which she had learned was called Flourish and Blotts. Eloise could see the mountain of books from the window. She caught the drool from her mouth and followed Mark through the door. Mark took the crumpled supplies list out of his jacket pocket and placed it in Eloise's hands. While pointing up and down the list he explained, "I'll find the second half of the books and you can find the first then, if you get lost you can talk to a member of staff or just come find me". Eloise nodded as Mark walked to the other side of the shop. Eloise looked nervously around the shop, there were so many books she didn't know where to start. Well she did have the list to help her. Looking at it she saw the first book was called " _A History of Magic"_ by Bathilda Bagshot. While Eloise was interested in the history of the magic world, history _was_ one of her favourite subjects after all, she couldn't help but stifle a small chuckle after reading the author's name. She wasn't sure why it was so funny to her, probably because it reminded her of the hobbits from her favourite books. Her eyes travelled around the shop looking for a sign of the book. Perhaps her eyesight was failing her because she couldn't seem to find one. Eloise then noticed a man beside her stacking more books onto the already cramped shelves, readjusting the books that were out of place. Eloise contemplated asking him about the book but decided against it, what if he didn't work there and she embarrassed herself? Well even if she had wanted to ask him, he had already moved away, ignorant to the skittish girl beside him. Luckily for Eloise she heard the conversation of a family behind her.  
"Which way are the history books dear?" A warm motherly voice said.  
"I tell you this every year mum, they're right over there as always" a younger, more stubborn voice chirped out. Eloise realized that this was her chance to find out where the book was, god knows she had spent enough time trying to find it on her own. The pair walked past Eloise, the younger girl leading the two. She looked around Eloise's age but was much taller than her, although that wasn't hard to achieve as Eloise always seemed to be shorter than everyone else around her. Before she knew it Eloise was staring at the display for ' _A History of Magic_ ' and she immediately felt like an idiot. There was indeed signs pointing to it and the display was not that small either, Eloise wondered if she needed glasses. Beside her the duo had already picked up their book.  
"Now Anna go and find the rest of your books while I get your robes"  
The girl groaned before speaking.  
"No way last time you got my robes on your own they were ten times too small and you had to charm them to fit me"  
"Well we wouldn't even have to be here if you had taken care of your books properly!" The woman retaliated.  
"Nobody told me that you use the same books every year! If I had known that I wouldn't have thrown them out would I?"  
The woman sighed, questioning herself on what she had raised.  
"Oh fine! I'll do some shopping for myself then" she said before sending her daughter off.  
After Eloise had picked up her book she felt a tap on her shoulder.  
"Excuse me, do you know where the romance section is?" The mother from earlier had asked her.  
"Oh! um... not really, sorry this is my first time here" Eloise stumbled out, her cheeks growing red under the woman's stare. Eloise had expected the woman to scowl at her and move on but instead she smiled at her.  
"So you must be a first year then, you must be excited to go to Hogwarts" her welcoming smile reassured Eloise and she relaxed under her gaze. Eloise nodded to answer the woman's question.  
"Oh if this is your first time here you must be struggling to find all your books, I can barely remember where everything is and I've been shopping here for 20 years now" she continued.  
"Well we can't have you lost in here all by yourself"  
"Actually-" Eloise went to explain that she was ok because Mark was nearby but the woman was too fast to interupt.  
"My daughter can help you dear- Anna! Come here for a moment!" The woman shouted over to her daughter, who had already made progress with the list of books.  
"Oh what now mum?" The girl said running her hand through her frizzy black hair. The woman lightly slapped the girl's arm before speaking.  
"This first year is struggling to find all her books so I want you to help her find them all - take care of her dear!", she said before pushing both of the girls away. The girl, Anna, chuckled before turning to face Eloise.  
"Sorry about that, my mum's a bit forceful sometimes...ok, all the time. I bet she didn't even ask what your name was". Eloise gave a small apologetic smile and shook her head. She hadn't minded her mother's behavior that much, it reminded Eloise of her own mother, she was an incredibly dominant woman and always got what she wanted in the end. Anna, noticing the beginning of an awkward silence, began to talk again.  
"My name's Anna Lawson in case you didn't know. What's your name?" she prompted.  
"It's- my name is... it's Eloise Thompson" Eloise bumbled out. That was the thing she hated about herself most, her inability to speak in front of people and the anxiety that was brought with it. She hoped that Anna would ignore her clumsy introduction. Anna grined when Eloise had stopped talking.  
"Your name's really nice you know. So your going to be a first year right? What house do you think you'll get put in?" Anna questioned.  
"Uhh...I don't really know, the only thing I know about them is their names" Eloise explained. Anna nodded her head in understanding.  
"Well I can explain it super simply for you. Each house has specific traits that are preferred and praised, different uniforms and has a seperate common room from everyone else. I suppose each house has a defining characteristic about it. Gryffindor has bravery, hufflepuff has loyalty, ravenclaw has cleverness and slytherin, well slytherin's trait is probably evil!" Anna laughed after finishing her sentence and Eloise smiled with confusion, why would a school praise students for being evil?  
Anna noticed Eloise's hesitance to laugh and explained,"Sorry you probably don't get that joke do you? Of course I'm kidding, the Slytherin trait is resourcefulness. It's just that Slytherin is infamous for having a large number of wizards who practice the dark arts, that's basically evil magic". Eloise nodded, the houses made sense to her now, although from the way Anna acted about Slytherin she knew that was not the house she wanted to be in.  
"Umm, I think I would probably be in ravenclaw, I do like reading and learning a lot".  
"I must say not a bad choice, I'm a Gryffindor myself. I know I'm biased but it's definitely the best house. Who knows maybe you'll become a Gryffindor". Somehow Eloise highly doubted that. If bravery was important for a Gryffindor then Eloise knew she would never become one.  
The two girls continued to have pleasant conversation until they reached the end of the list and had gotten every book. The pair found Mrs Lawson waiting at the entrance for them. Upon seeing them a look of joy appeared on her face and she hurried on over to them.  
"Thank Merlin you're done, I thought I was going to die of boredom!" She exclaimed, making Anna snort.  
"You're so over dramatic mum, honestly. Anyway here are the books" she said handing them over to her mother.  
"Thank you dear I'll just go and pay for these now and then we can pick up your robes" Mrs Lawson said quickly as she went over to the checkout counter.  
"Oh don't tell me she's already gone and ordered them herself" Anna muttered to herself before looking at Eloise.  
"Well it's been nice meeting you...I'll see you at Hogwarts soon I guess. Don't worry about school, it's not as scary as it seems and of course I'll look out for you if you need help!" , Anna grined while saying.  
"Thanks a lot, I'll probably be needing it" Eloise replied. She had never seen a more genuine smile and Anna's hazel eyes conveyed a similar look of protectiveness that her own mother had.  
After their exchange Eloise tried to find her uncle in the now very crowded shop, her uncle had warned her that it got busy around midday but Eloise underestimated how many people needed to shop for books on a Saturday afternoon.  
Finding her uncle's messy brown hair in the crowd, Eloise hurried towards him, hoping to get out of the shop as soon as possible. She tapped her uncle's shoulder to get his attention and he turned round surprised until he realized it was her.  
"Ah Eloise I was beginning to think you got lost" her uncle laughed.  
"So did you manage to get everything ok?" He asked and Eloise nodded in reply. She was about to hand him the stack of books before she realized that there would be too many for him to carry at once. Mark noticed this and smiled.  
"It's ok Eloise, watch this" he said, excited. Mark held his wand in his right hand and said some words Eloise did not recognize or understand. Suddenly the pile if books they were carrying were lifted into the air and levitated closely behind her uncle. Eloise could not keep the shocked expression off her face. Although she had seen many acts of magic today, it still amazed her to see it be used so easily. Though she doubted that magic would ever stop being amazing to her. Eloise waited at the side as Mark bought the books, once he had been told the price he grumbled while reluctantly handing over his coins.  
After they stepped out of Flourish and Blotts they set off for the robes shop, and from the way Anna spoke about them, Eloise was happy to get it over with.


End file.
